46 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Voices from among the Hives. 



J. L. Davis, of Holt, Ingham Co., Mich., 

 gays: — "I write this in response to Adair's ob- 

 servation, that the clipping of a queen's 

 wings is an injury. Some years ago, I ob- 

 tained a swarm of Bees from the woods. 

 Brought it home in the log, just as it was 

 found; after sawing off pieces at both ends, 

 we set the log up in our yard for a hive. The 

 Bees swarmed in June ; after alighting, I saw 

 the queen and caught her by the wings, and 

 called for scissors ; before they came, how- 

 ever, she turned around so many times, that 

 the wings came out by the roots. I sup- 

 posed this would kill her, but she lived until 

 lier sixth year, to my certain knowledge (she 

 might have been older). Her hive swarmed 

 once every year, and sometimes twice. I 

 <jould always recognize her by her peculiar 

 appearance, and so kept track of her. I 

 liave clipped hundreds of queen's wings 

 since, and never thought that it gave them 

 pain, or injured their usefulness. In clip- 

 ping queen's wings, have the comb on which 

 she is hanging up before you with the queen 

 in sight; with the left hand take hold of her 

 left wing as she is crawling upward ; hold on 

 just hard enough to make her gi'asp the comb ; 

 then with the scissors clip about half of the 

 large wing ofT. In doing this keep the breath 

 from the Bees, work slowly and carefully, 

 and you will be satisfied." 



S. Scott, of College Hill, O., writes: — "Our 

 season thus far is termed an open Winter. 

 The weather report for December stands as 

 follows: Rain, 6i inches; snow, li; clear 

 days, 1; average temperature, 36 degrees; 

 lowest temperature, 10 degrees, morning of 

 30th. In our vicinity, as far as I have learn- 

 ■ed. Bees are wintering well with those who 

 give them care and attention. The past sea- 

 son was a good one for honey, both in qual- 

 ity and quantity. Two swarms that issued 

 ■on the 5th of June ^avc a surplus of twenty- 

 one and thirty-two pounds respectively, of 

 pure comb honey, besides their homesteads 

 full remaining untouched on the last of July. 

 Though black Bees do well when flowers are 

 abundant, my preference is for the Italians. 

 We read sometimes of moth-proof hives, but 

 it takes a strong colony of B(h»s to keep a 



good hive moth-proof. The plan of putting 

 split elders under hives for the worms to 

 crawl under, is an old one; but if destroytng 

 the worms is not attended to daily, the elder 

 will prove a hot-bed for the propagation of 

 the insect. It is far better to spend the time 

 in encouraging the little wren by building 

 small boxes, four by five inches square, with 

 inch auger holes for entrances. Their keen 

 eyes are ever on the alert for worms and in- 

 sects, of which they consume a great many 

 daily. I think it is also a good plan to have 

 young turkeys as well as ducks near the Api- 

 ary. They can be seen early and late among 

 the hives watching for millers. I consider 

 them of great value to those keeping Bees.." 



J. F. Montgomery, of Lincoln, Tenn., 

 writes: — "Last year Bees did but little in 

 the way of storing surplus honey, though af- 

 ter the main season was over, they stored 

 honey enough to last them through the Win- 

 ter. I have now thirty-eight colonies, all in 

 good condition except one, which has a young 

 queen reared after the drones were all killed. 

 On 3d of this month, Jan., I put out rye 

 flour, and in less than an hour they were 

 swarming around it by hundreds. I am in- 

 tending to move my Bees this year a distance 

 of ten miles, to where there is an abundance 

 of linn. I think I can make it pay me. If 

 I do, I will report after the season is over. 

 I use Murphy's honey extractor, which I like 

 better than any other I have seen." 



N. M. Carpenter, of Ellington, N. Y., 

 writes: — Although the past two Winters have 

 nearly cleaned out my Bees, my enthusiasm 

 has not abated in the least, nor can I get 

 along without the old American Bee Jour- 

 nal. All through this section of country, 

 nine-tenths of the Bees died last Winter. 

 But the past season has been a good one, and 

 the business is rapidly renewing again, and 

 with a few favorable years will be as pros- 

 perous as ever. No theory which I have ev- 

 er seen oficred in any of the Bee journals in 

 relation to the late mortality among Bees is 

 at all satisfactory to me; nor will I at this 

 time atten.pt to offer any of my own, al- 

 though I feel quite confident that I could go 

 into Winter quarters with forty-eight swarms, 

 and come out with more than one, which 

 was my experience lust Winter." 



